UVR Spider

[Adrian]

There has been a lot of research over the last few years about whether spiders webs actually attract their prey to the web rather than the prey blundering into it. I have started to photograph various webs and their spiders to see if I can illustrate this. This is an example from this morning. Not sure if this is showing anything useful. They are difficult to shoot logistically - finding a web in the right place for example. 

The species I would live to try are tropical Nephila spiders (Golden Orb spiders).

 

Species: Araneus sp. with captured wasp (still just alive)

Camera: Nikon D800 full spectrum conversion.

UVR: Baader U filter with Nikon 105mm UV Nikkor. 4 x full spectrum converted Metz 45CT flash guns. 1/160th second @ f/11, 400 ISO. "White balanced" in PhotoNinja.

Visible light:  Kolari Hot Mirror filter. Normal flash @ f/11

[Doug A]

This is a great start. The spider, wasp, and web are rendered in fine detail. Haven't heard the theory about spiders attracting prey. How would they accomplish this? Either way, it will be a difficult photo assignment. Looking forward to updates.

Thanks for sharing,

Doug A

[JCDowdy]

This reminds me of one of Andrea's old posts:

Argiope aurantia [Black & Yellow Garden Spider]: Behind Stabilimentum

[Yves W]

Thank you, very interesting

We know a little about the vision of insects but I have nothing about the vision of spiders : Pisauridae, Thomisidae, Salticidae, Lycosidae.....